So, yeah, TF2 is a nasty kind of addicting. I was just complaining earlier yesterday evening about how much time MMOs suck out of a person's life, and then somehow found myself booting up TF2. Later, after 5 minutes of subjective time had past, I realized that it was after 2am. Having the 9 character classes--each with a fun and very different type of gameplay--makes this a game with a lot of immersion and replayability.

From the half-baked comparison bucket, let me pull this out: I've also played a small amount of the Enemy Territory Quake Wars (ETQW) demo. Both are class-based objective driven games. ETQW is a deeper, more complex game than TF2. But comparing the two is a bit like comparing, well, pure fun (TF2) with pure work (ETQW). Can't stop to smile while playing ETQW. Can't stop smiling while playing TF2. So far, I'd have to say that ETQW might be the better, richer game; but the joy of gaming is in TF2.

If you guys like TF2, seriously check out Fortress Forever. It's the "competitive" version of Team Fortress for the HL2 engine and came out last week. It is a nice blend between Quake World Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic, plus since it was made by former TFC 'pro' players, they took the time to balance it properly for competitive play and make it into a really REALLY good game from a player's perspective as opposed to a dev's perspective.

TF2 is basically a much slower, dumbed-down version of what Fortress Forever is. However, the 'dumbing-down' as I chose to call it also did admittedly give TF2 an easier learning curve for players. It's kinda similar to how someone new to UT2004 would have trouble if they ran into a UT99 or UT2003 player. Not AS BAD as that, given they made FF more friendly / tutorial-loaded for the younger players, but there is a bit of a skill gap there. Infinite possibilities though.

Anyway, I'll stop advertising in your TF2 thread now and just say that the [FDG] The Chocolate Shoppe will be back for Fortress Forever in about a week. FF is free, and I'd love to see some FnGers playing with us! We'll probably start it out as a pub server.

For the record, I didn't mean dumbing down to be a negative thing, in spite of what it sounds like. I just couldn't come up with a better way of saying that they removed a lot of the features from the Team Fortress games of old.